Interconnected Forms
by Norcinu
Summary: Four years later Ben, Max and Gwen go to a country known as Australia. Things aren't what it seems as they find someone with another alien device, only more aliens are after her and damage potential is on a whole new scale.
1. Welcome To New Opportunity

**Interconnected Forms****  
**_**By Norcinu**_

_A/N: This story has a teaser chapter to it located as a separate story called "Preview of Australia". Remember that chapters will be updated every week and thanks 'Emerald Shapeshifter 777' and 'Aquaria Identity 07' for being my first reviewers back on the teaser chapter! Criticism is welcomed but flames are laughed at. Disclaimer and more info about the story is on my profile page. Read and enjoy! _

_**

* * *

Chapter 1; Gateway to New Opportunity.**_

_In the international airport…_

Heavy breaths and rapid footsteps from Ben were muffled in the noisy crowds.

"Craaaap!" He cursed, trying to push himself through all the people at the crowded airport. He squeezed out from one group only to see hundreds more between him and his plane. He still had to get through the metal detector, find his gate, get through the walkway and run into the plane… in less than two minutes!

Ben glanced down to his watch that was still flashing red, "Damnit, I knew I shouldn't have gone back for that Krispy Kreme doughnut as XLR8!" He cursed again, jogging on the spot and desperately looking for a faster way through. He ran behind a lonely corner and began tapping the screen of the Omnitrix. "C'mon! Hurry up and work!" He begged, unable to keep his calm. His tapping turned into repetitive knocking, as if he thought bashing it would make the recharging process any faster.

And surprisingly it did. The screen clicked green and Ben quickly twisted and slammed down on it. A green flash emitted and in replacement of himself stood a ghostly grey figure, floating in mid air. "Finally!" The alien sneered with relief and annoyance, clenching its claws. "Now, time to catch that plane…" He concluded, turning and melting through the wall.

Meanwhile a little boy was heard screaming down the airport hallways to his mother, saying he saw a ghost with weedy grey skin and a beady yellow eye.

-----  
On the Boeing 747, flight number 912, Gwen looked around a little anxious, "Grandpa, Ben still isn't here!" She said, feeling the plane starting to taxi around.

Grandpa Max was worried as well, "I'll speak to the-"

"AHHHH!!!!!"

Max rubbed his ears, ringing like church bells from Gwen's shriek. "Gwen…"

Gwen shivered, calming herself down, "Ben's here. As Ghostfreak."

A grey, transparent figure faded into view next to her, sitting in the was-empty window seat. Ghostfreak clipped the belt over his lap as a green glow came over him and he turned back into Ben.

"I remember a time when you didn't use Ghostfreak anymore." Gwen moped, loathing all the pranks Ben can do with Ghostfreak.

"Well, time changes, doesn't it?" Ben replied snickering.

A flight attendant came towards them, "Uh, are you alright?" She asked, looking over at Gwen after hearing that scream.

Gwen blushed lightly from embarrassment as she saw other passengers flinching and starting to glance over to her. "Uh yeah, my cousin was just playing a trick on me…" She said, her voice a little jarring as she glared at Ben. He shrugged, pretending not to know what she was talking about.

"Just keep it down during the flight alright? Do you kids want an activity pack while I'm here?" The lady pulled up a little plastic bag with cheap coloring pencils and coloring book inside.

"Err, no. We're fine." Gwen finished and the lady nodded and walked off.

Gwen turned to Ben, ready to choke the life out of him "BEN-"  
"Hey, you heard the lady. Keep the noise down." Ben defended himself, leaning on the corner of his chair and the window.

Gwen crossed her arms and turned her back on him.

Ben grinned with victory and then took a peek out the window as the plane began taking off. He started to rethink of the events that have lead to this plane trip…

_**It's been 4 years since Ben first got his Omnitrix and 4 years since he's been able to really use it again, as school and social life has somehow become an importance over fighting alien baddies. So when the opportunity came up, Ben, Gwen and Max got the plane tickets and set off to country known as…**_

"_Australia?!" Ben replied with a confused, disgusted tone in his voice. "But that's like in the middle of the ocean! Besides, the only thing people do there is barbeque shrimps and ride kangaroos!"_

_Gwen raised an eyebrow, "How can you say that? You clearly don't show ANY understanding of that country," She replied, waving Max's ' Pocket Guide to Australia' booklet in front of Ben's face, "They don't ride kangaroos AND they usually don't call shrimps, shrimps. They actually call it a prawn."_

_Ben rolled his eyes, "More like porn…" He murmured, a smirk playing his lips._

"_Ben you're DISGUSTING!" Gwen said, hitting his face with the booklet._

"_Now, now. You'd think you two would have grown up a little from last time." Max stated, overhearing the two quarrel while he spoke to their parents._

_Ben laughed at the comment._

_-----  
_The 21 hour flight finally touched down in Australia in Queensland's city, Brisbane. The three got off the plane, picked up their luggage and preceded through the airport where they were greeted by an indigenous man holding a sign with their surnames on it.

"Dorak!" Max called out.

"Max!" The man called back, "Welcome to Australia buddy!"

"Long time no see!" They both said in union and shook hands.

"How you've been?" Max asked, having not seen Dorak for years and years now.

"Me? Fine, barely anything happens here anymore, how's it up in the northern hemisphere?" His old friend replied in an Australian accent.

The greetings went on so Ben and Gwen were utterly left out, but it was understandable when old people meet up with childhood friends of some sort. Ben hunched his shoulders, "Oh, yay. Reunions." He murmured sarcastically. It was a few minutes of 'hellos' and 'nice to meet you too' but the conversation finally progressed as they walked out of the airport.

"So this is her?" Max said, putting down his bags in front of the large caravan.

"Yep, the Rocket Jump Bus. Also RjB for short." His friend reviewed.

"Hah, even nicknamed just like the old Rust Bucket!"

"The Rust Bucket's the original, so it was only natural to base another RV on it here."

"Was its design blueprint similar to my old Rust Bucket then?" Max questioned, once again leaving the two teenagers in the shadows.

"Yep. It's packed with things for emergencies just like your old Rust Bucket, but it's a little more modern and spiced up compared to your old tin can." Dorak replied with a friendly nudge.

"Grandpa!" Gwen interrupted with eagerness.

"Yes?"

"So is this the trailer that we're going to borrow and drive around while we're here?" She asked, a little hopeful for a positive reply seeing the caravan looked like it came right off the newest model production line… well, from the outside at least.

"…Yes, yes it is." Max said, making Gwen cheer, "Oh, can you and Ben put the luggage on while I finish up with Dorak? Thanks!" Gwen slouched back down.

Ben twisted his watch to Fourarms, "This looks like a job for-"

Gwen stopped him from slamming down his arm, "No, not in a public place like this. It's just some bags Ben, not that hard!"

Ben groaned, admitting to himself that he does feel quite trigger happy with the Omnitrix.

"So how much do you want for it?" Continued Max, taking out a wallet from his back pocket.

Dorak gestured to him, "No, no money. I'm just lending this beaut over to a fellow brother. Just make sure it's in tip top shape when it comes back, alright?"

Max nodded, thanking him, meanwhile Ben dropped his backpack on the side of the pavement and carried the heavier luggage into the trailer after Gwen.

"…WHAT?!" Ben blurted out, dropping the luggage into the caravan. His eyebrow twitched as he saw the interior of the van. Even though it looked so modern on the outside, the inside of the convoy was practically, exactly the same as the old Rust Bucket back at home. Only bigger, fitted with more modern things, an extra bed and everything in opposite placements. "Wait," Ben said, noticing this, "Everything's like, the opposite…" He pointed out with his finger, the driver seat was on the right hand side, the door they came in was on the left side and the toilet was on the right hand side.

"No duh cabbage-brain, we're in the Southern Hemisphere now. Cars drive on the left hand side and the driver seats are on the right. You should know that!" Gwen replied in her knowingly tone.

Ben pointed around some more, letting the information sink in, "Oh… yeah." He said, feeling a little light headed from the airplane trip, and took a seat on the table.

"Ok, see you later Dorak!" Max finally said, going around the back to enter into the vehicle's drivers seat.

Gwen sat next to him and buckled up, "Grandpa, you comfortable driving on the other side of the road? It'd feel pretty weird…"

"Heh," Max replied, buckling in as well, "I've driven on the opposite side before so I should be alright. We'll be doing a lot of driving like back then, so you'll get used to it pretty quickly. Everyone's got their bags?"

"Yep!" Gwen said, then looked back at Ben, still dazed about everything being reverse, "Ben!"

"Huh?" Ben snapped back, "Yeah, whatever." He said unknowingly and went back at looking around the 'RJB'.

-----  
A while after the 'Rocket Jump Bus' drove off from the Brisbane airport, a little boy ran up to a lone backpack that's been sitting on the pavement for a while now. It had an awesome picture of Sumo Slammers and gangster writing patterns all over it. He picked it up without a second thought and ran over to his parents, slinging the backpack over his shoulder and smiling happily at his new found item. He was only 9 so he didn't know the ethics of handing in lost property, so he hopped into his parent's car and it drove off.

"Well, who's excited about getting to the flashy hotel we're going to stay at?" The driving father of the family asked.

The older girl and little boy occupying the back seats both raised their hands, "MEEE!!!" They shouted excitedly, both being young adolescents.

"Look honey, we're driving on the left hand side of the road," the mother pointed out to her kids.

"Ma, do we have to speak Australian slang?" The girl asked, having watched too many Steve Irwin and Crocodile Dundee shows.

"Aye, we're gonna speak the native language we are, and make friends with the locals!" the father said, attempting an Australian accent but getting some pirate one instead. The mother giggled because of this.

"Crikey!" The boy cheered, having watched too many of those shows himself.

-----  
It's been half an hour of driving and Gwen looked back at the quiet Ben, just to check on him, but then noticed something amiss, "Err, Ben? Where's your backpack?" She asked, breaking the silence. Ben raised an eyebrow and looked over at his feet… vacant space.

"HUH?!" He yelled, snapping his head side to side then diving to the floor to skewer out his backpack. He snapped his head up, the look of pure terror happening on his face.

Max overhead this, "Ben…"

"OH SHIT!!!" He cursed out loud, standing up and turning the dial of his watch.

"BEN! Don't-"

"Going XLR8!" He said pressing down on the watch.

The flash of green shone in the trailer, only to reveal a giant green bug, "Stinkfly? Oh I'll do." The alien said in a meshed voice, opening the side doors.

Max sighed, not being able to stop him, "Ben, we'll be over at that sugar cane field, ok? Don't get lost and don't get seen!"

"Yeah, yeah, I know-" Stinkfly replied, disappearing out the door before the rest of his reply could be heard.

-----  
Back in the family car, the girl looked over to her brother, noticing the mysterious backpack. "Since when do you get to have a new bag?!" She said aloud.

The mother looked back and sighed, seeing it, "You should know better than taking things that don't belong to you!" She scolded, picking up the bag and going through it, "Now I've got to look through it for any ID so we can return it to its rightful owner…"

Even though it was a sunny day with partly clouds, the father turned on the windscreen wipers for a few moments, then off. "Bloody bugs," He said, his accent sounding more Australian than pirate-like now, "It's been only a few minutes and I've already got me some mozzies on the windows!" He continued with the accent, making the kids happy.

"Crikey!" The boy cheered again.

-----  
Stinkfly was quick and swift over the cars towards the airport, fast enough to be considered as a large hasty fast bird flying overhead by the drivers.

He locked onto every car that passed him, catching the views of the people in the front seats, their hand carry and everything. He shook his head, "No, no, no, no, no, no! I can't lose it!" His four eyes continued to dart around franticly, knowing his wallet, his gaming systems, mobile and everything else was in that bag. He slowed down and lifted himself a few meters, looking forward at the cars coming towards his direction ahead.

Then one car, a four wheel drive, black BMW, caught his attention. A man driving and a woman in the front passenger seat, but in her hands… HIS BACKPACK!?!

He recklessly dived towards it.

-----  
"Ma, there's something coming towards the window…"

The mother looked back at the window.

SPLAT!

"AAAAH!!!" She shrieked, seeing an alien bug go splat against the window in front of her and thus making the father jerk the car.

"JESUS CHRIST!" The man screamed as well, quickly yanking the car back onto the road as cars beeped by him.

"MATHERE'SAGIANTMUTANTBUGONTHEWINDOW!!!" The girl cried out.

"Crikey!" The boy yelled also, wanting to join in the bawling fest and not quite understanding the situation.

Stinkfly's attention was directed at his bag that was just thrown into the back seat from the impact, he lifted himself up a little, having a hard time on the car speeding into an underground tunnel. He clenched his claws, only to accidentally scratch the windows and make himself more sinister looking to the passengers inside, "My baaagg…." He groaned, his mind set on it and nothing else.

"OH MY GOD!!!" The father honked his horn and switched on the window wipers, it's knocking on Stinkfly only made his claws dig into the window and frame of the car some more.

"HE WANTS THE BAG HONEY!" The mother yelled to her kids, edging back into her seat in fear.

The girl was too scared with shock, but the boy got the message. The window beside him was opened and he threw the bag out of it. Stinkfly immediately flew after it, speeding past the boy's window and catching him in awe.

A moment of silent relief went by inside the car, only to be followed with a foul smell coming into the car through the windows.

"CLOSE THE WINDOWS! CLOSE THE WINDOWS!" The mother shrieked, covering her nose as if the gas was going to kill her.

The car jerked to the side of the tunnel into a separate parking road. Stinkfly however, caught the bag and zoomed out of the tunnel, dodging all the cars and getting out in one piece. He sighed as he emerged out of the tunnel back into the sunlight.

Well, that was interesting for the first day here…

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**End of Chapter 1.**

Next time on chapter 2. The complication will arise as the Tennysons encounter the seeds of a budding chase…

…_but her looks or pose didn't concern Ben, the thing that made his stomach churn was the thick watch on her wrist… _

"_A second Omnitrix?!" Ben gasped out loudly, "GRANDPA!" He yelled out with urgency in his cry. _

...review and tune in.


	2. No Normal Vacation

**Interconnected Forms****  
**_**By Norcinu**_

_A/N: Thanks everyone for faving this story! Just note I'd like seeing reviews more than fav addings, so at least drop a heads up just to make my day. Anyway, I've tried making fanart for this but time's really against me this month. But I'm gonna try my best and get at least a sketch of the character you'll meet next chapter w!_

* * *

_**Chapter 2; No Normal Vacation.  
**__The next day…_

Ben walked through the animal park, casually eating his fries with his backpack completely strapped onto him, including the waist buckle around his waist. You know, just for safe keeping. "So... These are more often referred to as chips?" He said, repeating what Gwen just stated.  
"Yes." She said, walking alongside him and eating an ice cream.  
"Then what about a bag of chips? Are they called crisps like English people?"  
Gwen groaned, "Oh I don't know! Why don't you ask someone who actually lives here?!" She was sick of having to answer all Ben's stupid, random and idiotic questions. "Can't you bug Grandpa instead?!"

"Someone call for me?" Max came on cue, switching off his camera. It's the second day in Australia and Max thought it would be good to check out the crocodiles in the Australia zoo. It was interesting to see how big they grew to and how strong their jaws where, even if Ben did try jumping into a pen, wanting to wrestle one down as Ripjaws. His watch has timed out now so things can be more relaxing.

"Grandpa, are there any 'Aussie' Plumbers here in Australia?" Ben asked.  
"…No," Max replied, having to have answered this same question for the hundredth time, "There are no 'Aussie' Plumbers." He reaffirmed.  
"Then how do Australian deal with aliens?" Ben continued.  
"Differently to the plumbers." Max answered.  
"Then who was Dex?" Ben fired yet another question.  
"A friend..."  
"…from the Plumbers organization?"  
"No-"  
"Then how did he have a trailer nearly exactly the same as the Rust Bucket?"

Max sighed, "Look Ben, we're not going to encounter ANY aliens on this holiday trip so there'll be NO plumbing business which will mean LITTLE use of the Omnitrix and less things to worry about."  
"But then things won't be as interesting-"  
"This is just going to that normal vacation we were supposed to have four years ago. It'll be fun and refreshing for all of us… without any aliens." Max concluded.

Gwen stopped at a stall in front of them with a sparkle in her eyes, "Grandpa, look at this!" She said, putting on some local fashion accessories and waving them around. Max saw her and looked back at Ben, giving him a stern look. Ben simply crossed his arms arrogantly with a "Hmph" and looked away. Max sighed as Ben's ego and ignorance has grown along with his age. He walked over to Gwen, leaving Ben by himself.

"Normal? BORING." Ben complained, walking the opposite direction and eating his chips like a stubborn child. He tossed his finished chip packet into a bin and leaned against the wall as the inflexible teenager he's become. He looked at his watch, thinking about playing a prank to make him feel better but only to see his watch flash red. He groaned and leaned back on the wall, only to get his eyes blinded by a flash of light.

"Ow." He muttered, blocking the shining object from his eyes. He shook his head and headed towards the object that the sun's rays reflected off and found himself in front of a large notice board encased in that reflective glass. The posters inside were just random 'Join this netball team' or 'Come bush walking' and 'Wanted criminal' posters. He looked back at Gwen and Max, having fun trying on all the fancy bangles and necklaces and hats, he shrugged and read the posters, having nothing else to do.

"Wanted criminal… armed and dangerous…" He read to himself, just scanning over one section to another… until his eyes stopped dead in its tracks and his mouth gaped open.

As he looked over the 'Missing persons' posters, he saw one specific picture of a girl, her brown hair clipped up behind her head in a lazy fashion and the extra length of her hair drooping over the clip in a messy way. A noticeable feature of her was small mole between the right side of her lip and nose.

It was a cut group photo as there was a shoulder against hers and someone behind her. The picture was nothing special, she was just standing face on, arms hanging by her sides and a neutral-looking smile on her lips. But all of this was just side facts to Ben. What caught his attention was the thick watch on her wrist that made his stomach churn…

"A second Omnitrix?!" Ben gasped loudly, "GRANDPA!" He yelled out with urgency.  
Max saw his distress and jogged over to him, "What is it Ben?" He asked, looking at the notices Ben was staring at.  
Ben pointed to the picture of the girl, "Another Omnitrix!" He blurted out, catching Gwen's attention and making her run over to the notice boards as well.

The whole poster was a little blurred, showing it's been rough handled and has been through the rain at some point, so the picture's details were a little blurred, but the girl's watch was definitely thick and odd looking, like it had strange out-of-this-world markings on it… sort of.

"Ben you dweeb, that's just a thick bracelet!" Gwen retorted, such anticipation shattered by Ben "It's like the common fashion around here at the moment!" She pointed to the new bracelet she bought; it was thick with swirling patterns on it. "See?!"

"But the markings-" Ben began,  
"…are pretty?" She finished Ben's sentence, "No duh, there's girls out there who want to look different. She probably just has a unique taste."  
Ben looked at her with a shocked face. Shocked not from that girl but the fact he's just made himself look quite the idiot. More than usual.

"Gwen's right, Ben." Max said, scratching his chin. "You're looking forward for some action packed adventure a bit too much. You should know that things have changed." He said much to Ben's disappointment. Ben knew he was referring to life nowadays. Filled with schoolwork, exams, friends and family. Not with aliens anymore.

Max shrugged, not knowing how to help Ben's mood. He looked to his watch and saw it was time to hit the road if they wanted to reach the next major town before sunset. "Gwen, it's time to get back into the RjB and make our way to Rockhampton" He looked to Ben, "C'mon Ben, something exciting will turn up, I'm sure of it."

Ben shrugged as overlooked acknowledgment and Max and Gwen made their way to the RjB. Ben on the other hand wasn't convinced into aiming to have a 'normal vacation'. No way. It's been four long years since he's had some proper excitement and the three together again and on the road, is no concurrence.

Ben took one last glimpse of the poster, reading its details, then the girl's name, "…Charlie Decray…" He said, adding it to his memory. That was definitely an alien device on her wrist and this will not be another boring summer vacation.

---  
_Later that day, while on the road…_

More beeping was made by the screen board in the RjB. It's still low on fuel. Max sighed, he needs to get to Rockhampton before nightfall and stopping takes too much time. Except the RjB is really running out of gas. He looked ahead for any signs for a gas station… none.

"Gwen, can you look to see if there is some gas station between Gladstone and Rockhampton?"  
"On it!" Gwen replied, flipping through the street directory booklet. She found the page and traced their route with her finger.

Ben was on his DS on the table, playing the latest game of Sumo Slammers until… "NO." He said aloud, "NO?!" He repeated, shaking his Nintendo DS, "NOOOO!!!!!" Ben cried to the heavens.  
"What is it Ben?" Max asked, catching onto his constant bellows without really wanting to.  
"It ran outta BATTERIES!!!" Ben said, hitting his face on the table and placing the off DS to the side, "Nooooooooo!!!!"

"Grandpa, found one. It's the next exit to the left, but we'll have to detour off course a little for the gas station then stop at a different town for the night…" Gwen said, completely ignoring Ben's whining.  
"Can we get back on course after that?"  
"Yeah!" She replied.  
"Then that isn't a problem then." Max said, seeing the exit coming up and going on the further left lane.

"Does this mean the trip's gonna take LONGER?" Ben asked, begging for a 'no'.  
"It won't be too long, we've already been doing a lot of driving sooo… one hour, not long at all." Gwen answered.

"Noooooooooo!" Ben gasped, as if dying, an hour without anything to do would be DEATH.

"So immature…" Gwen commented, "Just entertain yourself somehow!"

---  
_45 minutes later…_

"Are we there yet?" Ben asked.

"…No…" Gwen replied and continued reading her book.

"Are we there yet?" Ben asked again.

"…No…" Gwen replied again.

"Are we there yet?" Ben asked.

This finally drove Gwen mad. She leaned back from the front seat and yelled, "BEN! STOP BEING SUCH AN ANNOYING DWEEB! WE'LL GET TO THE GAS STATION SOON!"

Ben pressed closed his eyes, his ears tingling. "Geez, you don't have to yell. It's not like a mile away from you."  
"Well your ears function as if you were." She snapped back, sinking back into her chair. It's been over half an hour of this constant annoyance now. Four years or not, Ben's still as annoying and immature as ever.  
"Now, now you two, it's not long now." Max spoke up, hearing that last fight over his classical music on the radio and trying to ease the two from another fight. Again.

"But grandpa! It's been AGES and it's getting really REALLY boring." Ben moaned back, thinking he might as well just go to sleep.  
Max sighed, not being able to do anything at the moment. It's been a long drive to get to Rockhampton and the long winding road along the small canyons was making make the RjB seem like a rocking ship on the ocean.

But suddenly an explosion when off. Somewhere on top of the next mountain where they were driving along. A big explosion.

"Woah, what was that?!" Ben cried out jumping to his feet, ready for action.  
Grandpa Max squinted his eyes towards the smoky top of the mountain, only seeing smoke, nothing else. "I don't know Ben, but sit back down, this could be dangerous…" He said, slowing the RjB little by little.  
"Aw, c'mon grandpa-"  
"Ben you'll give Grandpa a ticket if you down sit back down!" Gwen snapped, hearing police sirens in the distance.

"Fine." Ben sat down reluctantly.

The sirens in the distance, quickly got louder and louder. Max looked into his rear mirrors to see two police cars zooming by in top speeds, racing by him towards the miniature avalanche coming down the cliff from the explosion not too far ahead.  
Ben took a glimpse of the police cars going by, "What are you waiting for? Follow them!" He looked eagerly at Max.

"Grandpa… …what's that?" Gwen asked, watching something topple down the mountain side, rolling and tossing dirt into the air. Ben saw this and got out of his seat, walking towards the window, to see this incident. It looked like a person. Only, mega sized and not a person. Well, not human at least.

"I… don't know Gwen." Max said, not sure what it was also, he sped up a little, following after the police cars, curiosity influencing his actions, "It might just be some hooligan setting of a rockslide though, so we better watch out for any more…"

As they drew nearer to it Ben was about to say it was an alien, but it looked mechanical. A giant mechanical being, a big as the RjB, sprawled in the middle of the road, at the foot of the cliff. It could have passed for being some truck but not to Ben, he was thinking more on the lines of a huge alien robot.

The police cars came to an abrupt stop only meters in front of the huge pile of dirt piling over whatever fell in the middle of the road. The RjB stopped behind the cars.

Ben immediately ran out of the van as soon as it stopped, wanting to see this thing in his own eyes. He peered at it's dark blue/grey metal skin, dented and slightly reflecting the sun's rays in the less muddied parts. On the angle he stood, the being looked humanoid in shape, only much alien like. It was hard to make out much from the amount of rock and debris on top of it. But what was it? And what's that creaking sound?

Creeeeeaaaaaak….

* * *

**End of Chapter 2.**

Next time on chapter 3! Suspicions will be magnified and an adversary will vaguely be revealed…

_The large metallic (alien) being became savage, letting out a high hissing sound, like shrieking brakes. With its long sword-like arm it pierced through the middle of the police car, perhaps killing the two policemen inside it. With aid of its other hand, the police car was lifted off the ground and flinged off the road, exploding suddenly as it passed over the canyon's edge. Ben was frozen in his tracks, unable to move, unable to think, just caught by the awe of it all._

...review and tune in.


	3. First Encounters

**Interconnected Forms****  
**_**By Norcinu**_

_A/N: My apologies guys for making this late, I thought I posted it last Sunday! Well, I've been having major family problems and going through quite... eventful things this week. So I'm very sorry to say that chapter 4 will be delayed. By one week which makes it the 1st of December. First lateness and now delay, sorry guys, just a hard time. It'll get better... _

_Chapter Artwork: http:// i97. albums/ l223/ Norcinu/ My20Art/ NorcinuHeatblastFinal3.jpg -- Copy then paste onto URL and take out the spaces for it to work._

* * *

_**Chapter 3; First encounters  
**__But what was it? And what's that creaking sound?_

Creeeeaak…

Something in it moved, then some part of it twitched. It sounded like something in the debris was trying to move but couldn't. A policeman walked out of his vehicle and the other opened his door, them both being curious themselves. The first one took out a torch, flashing it at the van sized being even though it was pure daylight. Ben could make out its head and a bit of its body shape. It was like some cross between a stealthy fox or wolf, maybe a robotic kangaroo, a jet plane, it was really weird looking and hard to recognize and describe.

"Matt, you may want to call for back up. I have no idea what the hell this thing is…" Ben overheard the conversation with the police of the first car.

"Ok sergeant, right away…" The one in the car replied.

The policemen in the other car were out of Ben's line of sight but it didn't look like either of them got out of their car. But something shinning caught Ben's eye and he looked up at the sky behind the being.

PYUUU!

"BEN LOOK OUT!" Max yelled, instantaneously reversing the RJB in top gear. The mechanical being on the ground also switched itself on and jumped to its thin feet, thrusting itself into the cliff wall as a huge blast of light zoomed past it. The shot hit the first police car, blowing it up into flames along with those two policemen. It melted the wheels on the second police car and threw Ben back, who regained his footing. The RJB was luckily unharmed.

Ben gasped, such a sudden blast blow away the lives of the policeman just like that. He clenched his fists in anger and looked towards where the shot came from but saw nothing. He scanned across the clear skies and saw another being, mechanical and gigantic, like the one against the cliff, but this one was more blocky and jet like. It also looked a little more menacing and threatening, armed with alien firearms. Ben slammed down on the Omnitrix, his skin becoming hotter and hotter into molten lava and his head set on fire.

"It's time to heat things up and burn some metal!" Heatblast said, ready to melt these beings into smoldering piles of slime, but before he could do anything the metallic being in the smoky debris started moving again. It was slow and creaky, taking a few steps into the middle of the road, next to the second police car which had its doors and wheels melted, confining the policemen inside. Heatblast struck a fighting pose as the being towered his size by twofold.

"HEATBLAST!" He heard from Gwen, shouting from the side door of the RjB, "DON'T MAKE ENEMIES!!" Heatblast acknowledged not to 'shoot first and ask questions later' so he ran towards the being, intending to get close to it.

But the being became savage, letting out a high hissing sound, stopping Heatblast from getting any closer than several meters. He dived out of the way as the being's long sword-like arm it pierced through the middle of the second police car and with aid of its other hand, the police car was lifted off the ground and flinged off the road, exploding suddenly as it passed over the canyon's edge. Those policemen were inside that vehicle too.

Heatblast realized there was some sort of fight going on between the two beings and he wasn't included in it… yet. They must have been aliens, unaware of the humans they've just killed, but he'll make them aware. He stood up tall, glancing at the wolf-looking one who looked back down at him with expressionless eyes. Heatblast was about to make a move, but just stood there, not knowing what to do next. Who was bad and who was good? Who should he takes sides with?

"GIVE YOURSELF UP NOW," A loud booming voice came from the robot alien hovering towards them. Its voice was low and electronic-like but nearly sounded female in a way "…and your life will be spared." It quieted as the being drew close to the edge of the road. Heatblast saw the features of this alien. It was twice the size of the other being making it four times taller than himself, and it looked like some advanced military jet… or something.

The smaller being only made a weakened roaring sound. Something like shrieking brakes, making Heatblast flinch from that horrid noise.

The larger robotic being stepped onto the road, "Captivity isn't so bad. But it's better than dying slow and painfully isn't it?" The being took out a huge cannon-like gun from behind its back and pointed it at the other robot, "Or would you rather end it now?"

Heatblast caught on to this threat and concluded who was the bad one. "Why don't you pick on someone with more firepower?!" He said, jumping to the air and shooting out a stream of fire from his hands.

"Huh?!" The giant robot leaped away from the hot flames. "What is the meaning of this?!" It called out, flying back into the air, "A flaming bag of flesh?!"

Heatblast followed, surfing the air with flames trailing behind, "The name's Heatblast. And it's molten lava F-Y-I, T-Y."

Gwen rushed out of the RjB towards the wolf-looking being with the RJB nearby as Heatblast battled out with the robot in the sky. "Hey! Are you alright?" She said, calling out to it. It looked weak, slouching over as if it were about to fall. Its head twisted towards Gwen. She came to a halt and raised her hand, "Tutela Vis Obex!!" She called out, just in time.

The being tried crushing her with its spear-like arm but her just made force field prevented it. Luckily she's been continuously learning magic spells even if school was taking up a lot of her life. The pressure of the being's attack was getting harder and harder to uphold and Gwen started to feel a declining sensation in her force field, it was just too big and too strong.

But it withdrew its arm and took a step back suddenly, as if scared of her. She knelt down to gain her breath, confused on such a sudden change of action. A howl of engines was heard and she looked up, seeing the ends of the robot's feet lighting up like jet exhausts.

She saw it was going to run away and she raced towards it, "NO WAIT!" she called out, but had to shield herself from the exhaust heat. Her voice was silenced by the roaring engines and in moments the being sped off too quickly along the road.

Max ran towards her, "Gwen, are you alright?" He said, having to park the RjB away for safety.

"I thought… it was possible to gain a new ally…" She breathed out.

_Meanwhile with Heatblast and the other being…_

"A Pyronite…" the robot muttered, recognizing Heatblast's species and dodging another one of Heatblast's jets of flame.

"So, you're an alien too?" He asked, dodging another lazily aimed bullet from the robot, "You're a lousy shooter by the way."

"Well you're not my object-" The robot glanced down at the street and saw its original target, missing. "SLAGGIT!" The robot damned, cursing with a strange word.

Heatblast let out a chuckle of ridicule only to be interrupted by some weird beeping sound coming from the robot.

…

"There was some interference…" The robot said, replying to some in built communication link Heatblast couldn't hear, "…Suspected intrusion; Omnitrix holder."

Heatblast hung his mouth open from the accurate comment but listened into the robot's conversation.

"Except-" The robot cut itself off. "But-!" It cut itself off again, "Norci-"Another beep was heard and the robot clenched its fists in frustration. It glanced back to a confused Heatblast, "Watch yourself human. Your existence with the Omnitrix just got yourself on my hit list." Then suddenly a purple portal grew out of no where behind the being.

"Hit list?" Heatblast repeated, "So are you gonna have mafia after me now?"

The robot was silent, probably perplexed at the word 'mafia'.

"No. You're not registered as a priority." It replied.

It hovered backwards and melted back into the swirling portal that closed after it. Heatblast was then alone drifting in flames in the middle of the sky.

"The Omnitrix _isn't _a priority?"

He jetted back down onto the road with Gwen and Max jogging to him, "Yet that… that being was?" He continued to murmur. The thought of that missing girl entered his head again and that blurry picture of her watch.

Heatblast laid his hand on the Omnitrix symbol on his chest and in a flash he turned back to fourteen old Ben. Over the years Ben's learned how to revert back into himself without having to wait for the Omnitrix to time out. This, however, was the only thing he's learned to do. So the master code hasn't been unlocked still, no new aliens either but he'll get there eventually.

"Ben!" Gwen called out, running over to him, "Did you find out who those robots were?"

Ben was still in thought but snapped out of it, "That big jet-looking one is after that wolf-looking one. I didn't get any names or alliances though, but that big one is after the Omntrix…sorta…"

Max ran over to them, his old age making him a little slower than Gwen, "What do you mean by 'sorta'?"

"They said it wasn't on the priority list…" Ben turned to see where that grayish-blue one once was, "Well you see, that bigger one was really after the smaller one but I think the bigger one is working for someone else who now wants the Omnitrix but wants the smaller one first, before the Omnitrix…" He blurted out, sounding a little incomprehensible from his 'this one/that one' references.

"So not one name?" Gwen asked again.

"Oh…" Ben tried to remember, "That jet one said something like er… Norcee? Nori? Errr…" The robot was cutting itself off so it was hard for Ben to distinguish many of the words. "Was either the name of its boss or that one that ran off…"

The three stood there for a while, thinking about the information Ben gathered, until the sound of firefighter sirens and police sirens were heard in the distance. Max spoke up, "Let's get going. We can discuss it on the way to the gas station." He said, getting into the RjB along with Ben in front and Gwen on the back seat.

---  
_Roughly five minutes later of discussing while driving…_

"Maybe that smaller robot was a criminal and that larger one was some law enforcement?" Gwen suggested. "Or one being a bully and the other being a victim?"

"Hmm…" Ben said, scanning the sky from the front seat. He wanted to find out more about them, maybe get into another adventure. He looked at Max, wondering about what his thoughts were about this. Well, more like what they were going to do about it.

"So what do you think is going on?" Ben asked him. They've discussed and tossed around some ideas about those two giant robots but they haven't come to a conclusion on what they were. And Max hasn't quite said a word in the whole conversation.

"I think…" Max stated, keeping his eyes on the road, "That we've just gotten ourselves in a middle some other world fight and should try to keep ourselves out of it before we have someone like Vilgax after us again. We don't know who or what we're dealing with and we can't put any innocent lives at risk. You saw what happened to those policemen…" The three were now silent after that comment. Ben felt horrible that he couldn't of helped stop those casualties… he looked back out on the road.

But then Ben spotted something sprawled on the side of the track near the bushes…

"GRANDPA STOP THE RV!"

* * *

**End of Chapter 3.**

Next time on chapter 4! The chief character will be introduced, but is she what Ben thought she was?

_A voice on the other line picked up. A young teenager, peppy, "Hello?"_

"_Natalie?" The girl spoke in, "It's Charlie. I'm good."_

…review and tune in.


	4. Meeting Charlie

**Interconnected Forms****  
**_**By Norcinu**_

_A/N: Sorry for having this delayed chapter become even more delayed by a couple of days but surprisingly I've been in hospital all of a sudden, for quite a while and didn't have access to the internet. Sadly that's meant I couldn't finish off any more artwork, hopefully there won't be anymore random delays eh?_

* * *

_**Chapter 4; Meeting Charlie  
**__Then Ben spotted something sprawled on the side of the road…_

"GRANDPA STOP!"

The RjB skidded to a halt and the three were jerked forward in their seats.

"What? What is it Ben?" Gwen said, jumping up from her seat and clutching her stomach from the sudden g-force. Ben was frantically unclipping his seatbelt and rushed out of the door of the caravan. Gwen and Max also followed him hastily.

The terrain around them was a little barren with crops in the background and bushes on the sandy side of the road. But something stood out by the shrubs, a body. Ben stopped next to the motionless body, panting as he looked over to it with a nervous stomach.

Gwen ran up to him, gasping at the sight of the motionless body. "Is he…"

Ben knelt down and brushed off some dirt off of the figure, "I don't know…"

Max came and quickly got hold of the situation. The two stood back as Max checked a pulse on the neck of the person and listened for breathing from the mouth.

Ben recognized the body as a girl, roughly his age. Thin, his height, and brown hair in a messed up bun. She wore camouflage pants and a dull olive baggy shirt, like half some army uniform in a way. He guessed she was in some form of scouts or cadet group.

"She's only unconscious." Max concluded, "But her breathing sounds exhausted and dry. Ben, help me get her into the RjB." He said, taking her under the arms. Ben nodded and picked her up by the legs and the two quickly carried her onto the RjB without much problem.

The moment they laid her down on the extra bed she started to stir. Ben quickly got a cup of water and handed it over to Gwen.

"Whhaa..." She croaked, getting cut off as Gwen got the girl to drink the water. She gave a raspy cough but it sounded like the water helped. "Where…." She swayed her head a little, still out of it.

"Don't worry, you're in good hands now. We'll get you to a hospital…" Max said, seeing the girl's eyes starting to close again.

"Naw, I'm good LAC, tell the segeant I'm fiiine…" She replied, mistaking Max's voice. Her breathes became deeper, and by the looks of it she slipped off to sleep after that.

The word 'sergeant' obviously meant she's from some cadet or military group, and Max recognized the other rank as the Air Force.

The two teenagers looked at Max, wanting to know what to do next. "Right," He said, "We'll fill up at the next gas station and get her to the nearest hospital. I'll need you two to swap shifts looking over her every fifteen minutes and make sure the next time she wakes up she gets more water. If her condition's getting worst we'll call an ambulance." With that he went into the driver's seat and set off.

---  
Gwen was the first to look after the mysterious girl. She half woke up several times and took a sip of water but she just kept falling back to sleep before Gwen was able to talk to her. Eventually after fifteen minutes Gwen swapped places with Ben.

Ben got a good look at her and her face, noticing a mole between her right tip of her lip and nose, "S-s-sh-sh!?!" He stuttered the words out too quickly. He shook his head and tried that again, "She's that girl!" He said, pointing at her face. "She's that one from that missing poster I saw at that Crocodile Park!"

"She is?" Max said, surprised at such coincidence.

"Yeah, Charlie! That was her name!" He said, it was definitely her.

Gwen looked back and saw Ben looking at the girl's left arm. She frowned, "Ben! She's injured and tired. She doesn't have some 'second Omnitrix', we went through that. Right now you need to make sure she gets back to top health."

Ben's shoulders slumped but he knew she was right. "Yeah, I'll focus on that." He said softly and sat himself on the bed perpendicular to the bed the girl, Charlie was on, so he had a clear view of her head. First the poster, then the alien encounters, the four policemen, fleeing the scene, and now that missing girl? It was an eventful day, and still early in the afternoon…. Ben sat there quietly.

---  
It was only 5 minutes until she finally woke up, fully this time. She was able to sit up as well. It was a little hectic when she first got up, thinking she's been kidnapped by aliens or something. But she calmed down pretty quickly and seemed alright after some water.

"So your name's Charlie?" Ben asked. She was a little taken back from that.  
"Er, yes. How'd you know?" She asked back, surprised that he actually knew her, but also suspicious on why he knew her.  
"On a notice board, I saw your picture on a missing person poster." He replied with a friendly face.

"Oh…" She muttered, not too surprised by that. "So who are you?" She took in her surroundings of inside the RV she was in, Max and Gwen both in the front seats.  
"I'm Ben Tennyson. That's my dorky cousin, Gwen and my grandpa, Max." He explained, getting an 'oi!' from Gwen.  
She nodded, "Thanks for your generosity of taking me in. I really owe you guys one."

Max chuckled, "We'd be bad people if we didn't stop to help you on the side of the road. What happened to you?"

"Oh um…" She started, a little uneasy, "Well... You seeee…" She drew out her words, as if waiting for some sort of interruption. Fortunately she got one.  
"So are you in the army or something? You're wearing a camouflage uniform…" Ben asked, curious.  
"Oh," She seemed to only just notice her clothing, "I'm in the air force cadets, not army. But I wasn't in an activity or anything; these are just look-alike pants I wear for camping-"  
"Oh, so you are a cadet!" Ben repeated.  
"Cadet _Corporal_, thank you. But that's just excess information, eh? It's just an after school thing." She inspected her clothes, finding them dusty and smelly, "Er…"

"You can borrow my clothes," Gwen suggested, coming to the back of the RjB and sitting on one of the beds. "You're roughly my height anyway."  
"Really?"  
"After a shower of course, you smell!"

---  
_At the 'gas station'…_

The four hopped out of the RjB. Charlie in new clothes and the other three scratching their heads.

"Gwen… you said there'd be a gas station…" Ben said, crossing his arms.

The group was in a 'Stop, Revive, Survive' campsite. It was a nice picnic spot next to a small lake and a stall for any emergency supplies like fuel, food, tea, biscuits or a toilet stop. That was about it, with just several people about and their cars, but it wasn't a gas station.

"Gas station?" Charlie snickered, copying Ben's accent "You guys American or something? There'll be a petrol station at the next town, not in the middle of a long road." She straightened out the long sleeves of Gwen's top she wore.  
"Did Ben mention we're tourists, from America, going around Australia on holiday?" Gwen said, a little skeptic on how Charlie said 'American'.

"Oh, you _are_ Americans…" She said, nearly in an amused tone.

"What does that mean?" Gwen argued, eyeing her facial expressions.  
"What does what mean what?" Charlie replied, frowning and making sure her face doesn't give anything away.

"You said 'Americans' in a weird tone. What are you implying?"  
"Wasn't implying _anything..._"  
"You so were. You're playing dumb!"  
"Oh, so now _you're_ implying that _I'm_ dumb?"  
"It was a figure of speech!"  
"…Or were you really trying to _hide _its real meaning?"  
"...What?!"

Ben and Max both gave a nervous laugh and edged away from the two quarreling girls and decided to go buy some petrol, Ben really just buying snacks to dodge eating grandpa's next meal.

After a while Gwen gave up trying to get answers from Charlie and Charlie gave up trying to make her answers complex enough for Gwen. So the subject was soon changed.

"Touring around Australia, eh? Sounds pretty fun! Are you going to try go through the middle as well?" Charlie asked, never have traveled around her own home country herself.  
"Perhaps, we've traveled through the US and that had lots of sand and sun. So we'd be pretty used to it." Gwen replied.  
"That's… pretty cool." Charlie concluded. She began nodding to herself, "Cool indeed. You guys have fun."

A question then sprung up from Gwen's head, "Hey, shouldn't you call your parents or something? You're like, a missing person…"  
Charlie made a funny face showing she's obviously forgotten something that important, "Oooh yeeaah…." She then put her hands over her thighs, then her hips, then her back, feeling for her many pockets that were on her pants but now that she's changed into Gwen's clothes, were non-existent. "I don't have my phone…"  
"Here, use mine." Gwen handed her phone and Charlie looked at the numbers on it.  
"Parents are a little far away and can't do anything…" She murmured, "Relatives could, though…" She dialed in the numbers, strolling towards the RjB as the number rang.

A voice on the other line picked up, young, teenaged, peppy, "Hello?"  
"Natalie?" Charlie spoke in, "It's Charlie. I'm good."  
"OHMYGOD!" She screamed, her voice able to be heard from Gwen, Ben and Max who stood nearby, "IT'S YOU!?! OH MY GOD, YOU'RE ALIVE?!?!"  
Charlie put on a pained expression on her face from her hurting ears, "Yes, some tourists found me a little dazed from the road and are taking me to Rockhampton. You could probably drive down from Cairns and pick me up there or something…"

The other three decided not to eavesdrop on the conversation, but the next question Natalie asked caught their ears, "So what happened to you? I mean, it's been a week!"  
Charlie was a little silent for a moment, pivoting on the spot and looking out at the lake in the distance, "Erm…" She paused, a little uneasy, "…I can't remember. I'm…Er, still a little dazed…" Charlie's voice over the phone might have sounded self-assured, but her face told another story. She looked as though she was lying.

The conversation went on, Natalie trying to get a story out of Charlie, only to have Charlie cut it straight to the essential information of pick up times, names and phone numbers. Finally the talk ended after quite a while and Charlie gave a sigh of relief, the phone call took a long time. She handed back the mobile phone to Gwen.

"Oh, don't you need to call your parents as well?" Gwen said.  
Charlie gave another sigh, not from disliking her family or anything, but from how much energy the phone call could take. She started to dial in the numbers-  
"Wait!" Max stopped her, not wanting to stand around for another reunion phone call. "Let's get going again, you can call them in the RjB." He said and got into the RjB, Gwen following.

"The RjB?" Charlie repeated.  
"Rocket Jump Bus. Just some wacky nickname for the trailer, I didn't name it so I've got no idea what it means. Makes it a little more exciting." Ben said, walking into the RjB's side doors.  
"Ah, yes. My dad and crazy uncle do that to their cars. Blue Hawaii and Silver Arrow and…" She replied, trailing off as she looked up at the sky, eyeing something in the far, far distance.  
"Something interesting?" Ben said, pulling himself up on the side of the van to look over it, see what she's seeing.

A little dot in the sky, flying slowly but suddenly disappearing. Charlie rushed into the van, pushing Ben into it as well, "To Rockhampton!" She stated loudly and the four set off.

* * *

**End of Chapter 4.**

Next time on chapter 5! A large segment will give readers an insight of the challenges and more villains our heroes will have to face, and confusion will take its place. But what we've really wanted to know, will be revealed… or will it?

_A few silent moments went by as the two looked each other in the eyes.  
_"_I don't know what you're talking about." She plainly replied, crossing her arms._

_Max tried to butt in, "Ben-"  
_"_No way," Ben cut his grandfather off and looked back at Charlie, "it's on your left wrist; it was in the photo on your missing poster!" Ben argued, his voice becoming louder and more demanding. He was skeptical that she didn't have a clue, and by the sudden shock in her eyes, he was convinced she had it, "Charlie. Let me see; the watch."_

_She sighed and frowned seeing she can't get away from this, bringing up her left arm slowly to his eye level and took hold of the edge of the sleeve. She pulled it back to reveal…_

…_the watch._

…review and tune in!


	5. Hidden Answers

**Interconnected Forms****  
**_**By Norcinu**_

_A/N: Here's chapter 5 on time, but along with some bad news. Next week I'm going on a flying course and will be gone for the whole week so chapter 6 will be delayed a week and come on the 23__rd__. The artwork is a dodgy in quality but will be fixed up during the week, thanks for your reviews everyone :D Always motivates me to write more._

_Artwork: http:// i97. albums/ l223/ Norcinu/ My20Art/ IF-IrkenPreview.jpg -- Copy and paste into URL, then take out the spaces for it to work._

_**

* * *

Chapter 5; Hidden Answers  
**_"_To Rockhampton!" She stated loudly and the four set off…_

Gwen was up in front with Max, and Ben was sitting with Charlie on the table. Ben continued to watch Charlie constantly scan the sky through the window, "So…" He broke the silence between them, "You going to call your parents?"  
She nodded, slowly looking down at the mobile and ringing her parents, putting it up to her ear … … … She leaned back on chair, staring at the ceiling as the line picked up "Daaaaad?"

"CHRIST YOU'RE ALIVE!" Yelled from the phone.

Ben adverted his gaze to the window, to where she kept glancing at earlier. But then something caught his attention as it caught hers. It wasn't an object, but a shadow, without an object. The shadow looked like some manta-shaped aeroplane and in the distance where the shadow-caster should have been, was a small faraway shape, blurry and constantly disappearing out of view in a suspicious way. But after a while it disappeared completely… very doubtful.

Ben was urged to go Stinkfly and check it out but he couldn't with the girl around so he sat tight, passing it for a bird gliding in the distance.

- - - - -

"What are you doing?" Asked a cool, calm voice from the shadows.  
"…What do you think I'm doing?" Replied a more boastful, smug voice, "I'm piloting that's what. Why?"  
"Well Mr Pilot, why are we in the plain view of sunlight?"  
"So I can see where I'm going, duh."  
"You have your control panel and flight instruments."  
"And I have the stealth cover on, people can't see us, so quit being so uptight Mr I-think-I-know-what's-going-on!"

The calmer, taller figure sat on the seat beside the pilot. He had large insect-like, olive eyes and antennas that bent over his face. Their green skin and strange clothes obviously showed that both of them weren't human, even if their thin figures looked very humanoid.

The towering one spoke, "Don't you know how the sun's rays can easily be blocked with solid objects, cloaked in covertness or not and thus making its shaded mark evident on the surface below?"  
The pilot looking at him with a baffled face, "Eh?"

"Shadows! SHADOWS!" He stated clearly, pointing his talon like fingers down at the edge of the windows.  
The pilot looked over and saw a clear shadow being caste from their ship…

"Sun, damnit!" The pilot cursed seeing this, steering the ship towards the ground to make the shadow less obvious.  
The calmer figure rested his feet on top of the dash board, "Mr I-think-I-know-what's-going-on…" He mocked back.

The pilot grumbled, "Soz… Why can't we just go in and grab the thing?"  
The figure addressed his associate's name, "Well you see, **Khni**, those other aliens might step in and stop us. You've seen their fire power back at the canyons-"  
"Don't we have more firepower?" Khni, the pilot asked.  
His accomplice looked at him, "We can make more guns but quantity is no substitute for quality."

A few silent moments went by, "What's our plan then? How can we possibly get to the device then?" Khni asked his omnipotent friend.  
"We can't out-fight our rivals but we have a chance of out-smarting them. They can only track the device down when it's activated. It was also quite a coincidence for the three to find the girl or our rivals would of have gotten the device before us. Now in the presence of others, the holder can't give away it's secret so it won't be activated, leaving us on top."  
Khni interrupted grinning, "I like being on top!"  
The saying had a double meaning, but being use to such comments his associate ignored it and continued, "We need to plan this at every step, right now they're heading to the next town to take the girl to hospital. Then they split up. They go around this island and girl goes back home, back to her school and her family. That will raise complications upon dealing with the alien device. We need to keep that girl traveling with those three."

"Eh?" Khni urged him to continue, wanting to know what's going to happen now.  
He explained his plans, "In hospital I'll make my move to make things easier for us. The device needs to be constantly moving so our rivals will have to continually move their base also, and consequently won't get the artifact before us. Bring up the monitor." He called out, swinging his feet off the dash board and a holographic screen coming up. He cracked his fingers and began typing things down.  
Khni glanced over to him. "What are you looking up?"

His partner in crime looked back at him, "Some human medical jargon."

- - - - -

"Thanks for letting me use your mobile!" Charlie thanked Gwen, handing the phone to her cousin and having him just chuck it onto Gwen's bed.  
"So what's happening with you and your parents, Charlie?" Max asked.  
"Parents are too far away so my relatives, who I was originally staying with, are going to come down from Cairns on plane tonight and get me back to their place, maybe leave tomorrow, after I go through all the police and hospital papers, if any." She replied informatively.

"So tell us," Max continued, "What happened to you exactly? You seemed a little... nervous talking about it with your cousin Natalie over the phone…"  
Charlie started to look a little nervous again, as Max saw this through his rear mirrors. It would be a while until they go to their destination so she had no way to delay herself anymore. She began, "I was with my relatives on school holidays a week ago. They were planning to go camping in the bush for a bit, so we went out and camped…"

She paused for a while, "And uh…" She cleared her throat, "A whole lot of teenaged friends tagged along, and they packed a whole lot of drinks for the trip. So one night when we were all chilling out, we accidentally got a little high, well, we actually got wiped out. Stuff happened and next thing I knew I found myself utterly lost in the middle of nowhere with no sense of direction and no sign of assistance…"

Max was a little apprehensive about her story, "Aren't you a little young to be drinking-"  
"That's why it'll be a little uneasy explaining myself to my parents and relatives." She replied quickly, closing the conversation. It was her story so Max decided not to go into it anymore.

"Woah, you got drunk?" Ben asked, "Tell me about it!"  
"Err, how 'bout no?" She said bluntly, shrugging with a nervous smile.

---  
The four arrived to Rockhampton and because of Charlie, none of the Tennysons could speak or discuss on their earlier encounters about the aliens with her present, and Ben had to keep the Omnitrix out of view so it was a quiet and relaxing trip in a way. Gwen's been occasionally chatting to Charlie and Ben's been napping most of the trip so to Max's pleasure, nothing's been hectic for the first time this holiday. So after the RjB was parked and Ben was woken up, the four walked into the hospital, just to have a check up on Charlie's condition, which seemed to be getting better.

"Right Charlie, they're going to let you rest here for the time being, the police are going to come over, have a chat with us about finding you and chat with you about how're you're doing." Max notified her after talking to a nurse and she nodded.

Ben just remembered something. Police, missing people, missing poster, Charlie's wrist, the second Omnitrix! He snatched her left wrist all of a sudden and she instantly jerked it back in an instant, "What are you doing?!" She yelled, edgy about Ben doing that.  
"Ben! You don't go snatching other people's wrists like that!" Gwen told off, so did Max, but Ben ignored it.

"The second Omnitrix! You have it!" He insisted. Ben was desperate to know, to have this thought confirmed and just to be safe. Her appearance after the massive alien encounter, her watch in that photograph just happens to look a lot like an Omnitrix, her left wrist hidden for the whole trip, it can't just be coincidence.

A few silent moments went by as the two looked each other in the eyes. Max and Gwen too engrossed in this as well considering they've had their encounters with aliens and then her. If she had it, it could mean she was an enemy to society from her violence towards those policemen. And it could also mean she's also in great danger and potentially, the universe if that device is as powerful as the Omnitrix, something like this couldn't be kept secret and they all wanted to know the answer.

"I don't know what you're talking about." She plainly replied, crossing her arms.  
Max tried to butt in, "Ben-"  
"No way," Ben cut his grandfather off and looked back at Charlie, "it's on your left wrist; it was in the photo on your missing poster! And how can you explain your sudden appearance right after that alien robot attack in the canyons!" Ben argued, his voice becoming more demanding.

Her eyes widened a little with minor shock, as if a secret's out, but her face became neutral again, "Alien robot? You sure it wasn't a military jet or weather ballon then? The canyons are known for common rock slides as well. And why'd you want to know about something like that? Just a watch Ben, just an old photo as well." She replied defensively.  
Ben was skeptical of her not having a clue, and by how defensive she was acting, he was convinced she had it, "Charlie. Let me see; the watch."  
She frowned at him, but his eyes convinced her to stop arguing. She sighed deeply and brought up her left arm slowly to his eye level and took hold of the edge of the sleeve.

She pulled it back to reveal…

…The watch.

"It's a 1998 Nike scuba-diving resistant watch, with a blue colour fading band." She said simply, twisting her wrist so he had a full view of it. It was an ordinary thin sporty watch, old but sturdy. "It's not an 'Omnitrix' watch that you've been expecting to see."  
Ben gasped a little, absolutely dumb folded. It _was _only a watch!  
"I don't know how you can get so serious over a watch too." She added, looking over at Ben's watch. Ben was wearing his arm sleeves so the Omnitrix couldn't be seen at the moment. But his embarrassed face showed he was mentally stabbing himself for making such an idiot of himself.

However, in the eyes of another spectator, this show wasn't all that comical. Someone seeming to be reading a newspaper lowered it and watched the scene with piercing eyes.

A doctor came up to Charlie, "Um, Charlie Decrey?" He asked, catching her attention from the embarrassed Ben and quickly ending the scene. "Hello, I'm Mr. Edwards, and I'll be tending to you for the time being!" He said with a happy attitude. He was a young doctor with an enthusiastic, care free attitude. He led her through the hallways to her room, leaving the Tennysons to deal with the arriving police and Ben to hide his mortified face.

The guy sitting with the newspaper talked into his mobile, "Khni, do you copy? Found my host, I'm going in." He spoke, his words unnoticed by the people around him.  
"Roger Doctor, do you magic! In the meantime, I'm off to the gamin' store."  
The phone went offline and the guy stood up and walked in the direction that doctor and Charlie went.

* * *

**End of Chapter 5.**

Next time on chapter 6! Ben finds out more clues that continually lead to one answer, but will that answer ever be confirmed? And what are the plans taking place out of sight?

_Greymatter spied through the air duct of the alleyway, seeing that doctor stomp around while talking on the phone. He was saying some suspicious things about a signal. _'_Hmm… that doctor always did seem a little peculiar…' Greymatter thought, and edged closer against the air duct to hear the voice over the phone._

"_What do you mean there's another signal, only stronger?" That doctor Edwards argued through the mobile.  
_"_I'm telling you it's off the scale! So close to you as well!" The faint voice replied in an astonished tone.  
__The doctor paused before making a reply. "Ignore it. We aren't-"  
_"_Whatever," The voice interrupted, "even if the signal IS only a meter to your right…"_

_The doctor's head snapped to the right, immediately spotting the air duct. Greymatter tensed up and moved to the corner of the air duct, holding his breath. The doctor leaned in and began scanning over it with his piercing eyes…_

…review and tune in!


	6. Seeds Planted

**Interconnected Forms****  
**_**By Norcinu**_

_A/N: Apologies for getting this a day late! It's a little longer and more confusing than other chapters but hopefully not that bad. Sad news, I can't find access to a scanner so artwork for the next month will be scarce with photo quality. Anyway enjoy and Merry Christmas everyone! _

* * *

_**Chapter 6; Seeds Planted  
**__Charlie in her hospital room resting the afternoon away…_

Charlie had a hard time sleeping, she was restless about everything. Max could obviously see through her lies and Ben was definitely onto something, and well, maybe she _was_ keeping a secret, that doesn't need they needed to know, like anyone needed to know, it wouldn't affect them. She mumbled and growled under the covers. She wanted to run, to keep moving. Staying in one area for too long is hazardous for her. _They_ can locate her somehow and take her. Take out anyone along with her. Need… to keep running.

"Afternoon?" A voice piped up from out of nowhere.

"HOLY-" She tensed up, sitting up on her bed and turning around to see two police officers, a doctor and those three tourists, "Cheese…." She puffed out, avoiding swearing out of shock in front of adults.

"Right," The policewoman began, "We need you to straighten out a few details with us-"

"I'm afraid I can't let you do that with my patient." The doctor stated with a stern, serious voice, different to his peppy self just earlier on. She could have sworn he looked different somehow, nearly younger?

"Why not?" the other policeman asked.

"You see, she's suffering post-dramatic stress." He stated, "She's had a small proportion of some alcohol _expenditure_ in which _proliferated_ her terrible experience being out in the _vindictive_ world for a number of days. It's amazing her lively _façade_ right now but _appraisal_ shown that's she's enormously stressed and tensed and needs time to loosen up."

It took a few seconds for that explanation to digest in everyone's heads.

"Can you put that in simpler words, doctor?" The policewomen suggested, not quite understanding what on Earth the doctor just said.

"What I'm trying to say officer is that's she needs a little time for proper and complete rest. She's been jittery even since she's gotten here so I _advocate_ that you talk to her relatives when they come in a few moments. In the meantime, her, er, finders can rest in the hospital housing we can offer you tonight." The doctor said, his strange accent baffling everyone into just agreeing with him. The police left to wait outside for the relatives and the Tennysons went into the quarters offered from the doctor, leaving Charlie on her own to sleep, again.

"Why are you letting us stay?" Max asked. It's not usual to let non-patients stay in the hospital.

"We don't have many patients at the moment and Charlie seems to be relaxed with you folks around, it's no big _transaction_, this is just to ensure my patient is in tip top health as soon as possible." The doctor replied, giving a strange grin after saying that. He left the Tennysons to their room and left straight afterwards.

Ben jumped on the hospital bed next to the window, letting himself sink in. "Woooah! …woah? These beds… aren't as soft as I thought they'd be…"

Gwen rolled her eyes, "Not as soft? So spoilt Ben, be lucky they even let us sleep in here!" She said, inspecting her claimed bed in between Ben's and the one nearest to the door. She glanced over to Max, confused by his facial expressions. "Grandpa? Is there something bothering you?"

Max looked over to her and smiled, "No Gwen, just thinking about all the things that's been happening… Ah well, you kids keep Charlie company, you remember what that doctor, er, Edwards said."

Gwen sighed from agony, "Even I had a bit of trouble understanding him, his use of exaggerated-worded vocabulary with weird sentence structures, it even confuses me!"

"Speak for yourself!" Ben chuckled and flinched as Gwen through a pillow at him, "Ha! My pillow now!"

"BEN!" Gwen bellowed, jumping over to his bed to get her pillow back.

Max opened the door, "Well, I'm off to get some fresh air and bring back something to eat for dinner."

"I'm coming too!" Gwen called out, snatching her pillow back from Ben with one last pull, "I need to get my bags, how 'bout you Ben?" She asked, but only got Ben's snoring as a reply. With that the two went out, leaving Ben snoozing on his bed.

But he looked back and in seeing they were gone a grin grew on his face and he jumped out of bed, "Finally I'm alone!" He said with glee, turning the dial on his watch, "Cause it's time to go hero…" He pressed down his watch, the green light filling the room then dying down to show the small, large eyed frog-like alien, Greymatter.

He struck a fighting pose, "…Ninja turtle style!" And jogged off.

---

Greymatter opened the air duct on the side of the hospital, just next to a tight alleyway with the thin view of the car park. He watched the RjB drive off and punched his fists into the air, "Oh yeah! Time to do some exploring-"

"SAY WHAT?" Interrupted a loud voice. He withdrew into the air duct and watched through the gaps, seeing Dr Edwards by himself talking through his mobile.

"What do you _mean _there's another signal? Only STRONGER?" The doctor talked into the phone, but the reply couldn't be heard from Greymatter's distance.

'_Interesting… That doctor always seemed a little peculiar…' _Greymatter thought suspiciously, and edged closer against the air duct to hear the voice through the phone.

"I'm telling you it's off the scale! It must be the original y'know?" Replied the faint voice through the phone.

"Ignore it Khni! We aren't here to just randomly chase after whatever hits your ship's monitors. We're after one thing, one thing! So keep yourself in focus, don't stray from our objectives!"

A grunt came from the phone, "Whatever you say brains, even if the signal IS only a meter to you right…"

The doctor snapped his head to the right, immediately having the air duct catch his attention, Greymatter tensed up, and moved to the corner of the air duct, holding his breath. The doctor leaned to the air duct and began to scan over it.

"By the way 'doctor'," The voice interrupted the doctor's search, "I listened in to your words back there, and I must say my good man… you suck at English!" He crackled with an imitated English accent, "Or as the French say, Anglais... I can't believe the amount of words you messed up and even the simple sentence structure you've barely got the hang of; terrible! Haha!"

"Oh shut up," The doctor's eye twitched and he turned away from the air duct, letting Greymatter release his breath and tension, "I'm fluent with harder languages like Cybertronian, I just haven't had as much practice as you've had! You're always taking excursions to human shops and streets and-"

"Haha, okay! The relatives are arriving in about 20 seconds on yellow taxi vehicle, I suggest you get to them before the police chat with them. This is alpha wolf squadron, signing off!" The line closed.

The doctor gave an annoyed yet humored 'hmph' but put his mobile back into his pocket and dusted his white doctor clothes. He then walked out of the hallway towards a taxi just parking in front of the hospital.

Greymatter, still in the airduct, was contemplating, "A signal that leaded towards me? Original? Does that mean…" Greymatter was going through his past thoughts of a few days back, from when Ben first saw that poster, the metal aliens, meeting Charlie, the non-original signal concerning the doctor and the doctor taking care of Charlie. It all lead to one thing and Greymatter could see it clearly. "No. Way." Greymatter left the scene.

---

After getting back into the hospital hallways and dodging the nurses and people walking by, the coast became clear and he pressed on his Omnitrix symbol, converting back into Ben, just before he walked into Charlie's room, wanting answers. And this time, the truthful answers. "CHARLIE-"

He stopped in mid sentence, "Damnit." He cursed whispering, she was asleep! Just curled up in her bed breathing deeply in slumber. He inclined from checking her wrists again, he's already done that and resulted in major embarrassment. He grumbled in irritation and saw it was getting dark outside so he'd probably better off getting those answers tomorrow morning, he guessed it could wait after a good night's sleep.

"And so you see, it'll greatly relax her _shriveled, withdrawal_ state of depression and properly get her _out of her shell_. It is for the best of your child- I mean, your niece. My mistake for family relations!" The doctor spoke to the aunty, uncle and cousin Natalie, of Charlie.

The three looked at each other, this was the second time the doctor explained the situation to them and both times they had trouble understanding his accent. Nether the less, they got what he was saying… eventually.

"But how can we trust these tourists? I mean, we haven't even met them…" The aunty spoke up, her Filipino accent strong yet more understandable than the doctor's.

"They're staying here for a while so I can let you speak with the Grandfather and also see the kids. You can swap numbers and details for safety and there you go."

"But why would they want to agree to this?" The uncle asked.

"It's for the _most excellence_ of my patient. I'll speak to Mr Tennyson and bring him to you, then it's all good to go!"

"But what about all her stuff?" Natalie asked.

"But, but, but, are you a family full of it? Everything will go perfectly if you just commit to it. Now wait here while I get Mr Tennyson!" The doctor concluded and walked off before another word could be said.

While walking down the hallway towards the room those tourists were in, he took out his mobile, pressed a button and spoke into it, "Khni, reading?"

"Copy!" Came the reply.

"I've got the relatives chipped, all I need is to brainwash the old guy and we're good to go. Also I need you to get the gear Charlie had as she was camping. You know, when those other seekers got to her a week ago? Do that immediately and sneak it into the relative's car. Out." He ordered and put his mobile into his pocket as he stepped into the room where the Tennysons were eating some dinner.

The Tennysons stopped talking and Max put down his dinner and stood up, "Can I help you?"

The doctor nodded, "I have a… proposition to make and need you to come with me to meet Ms. Dacrey's relatives." Before Max could reply the doctor walked off, making Max walk out after him, leaving Ben and Gwen alone.

"Do you think grandpa's going to be alright?" Ben asked, a little worried about him going with that doctor, "We can't trust that doctor, he so knows something about the Omnitrix…"

Gwen finished her food and stood up, "Then we better follow him shouldn't we? Just to make sure he's ok."

Ben finished his food and followed her out after the two adults, only to be confronted by a teenaged girl in the hallway.

"Er… hello?" Gwen started, the girl blocking their way from following Max.

"Hi!" She replied happily, "I'm Natalie, Charlie's cousin. So I heard you guys were tourists from the US, right? I've been there, a few times actually, it's a nice place and-"

"Er, listen, we've gotto go see our granddad…" Ben said, cutting her off seeing she seemed like the talkative type and he really didn't want this to develop into a long conversation.

"Oh? He's talking with my parents about an agreement, I'll tell you about it."

And so a long conversation commenced.

---

The relatives met Max and the doctor explained everything to him, "So Mr. Tennyson, you said you and your grandkids are touring around Australia in your caravan, correct?"

Max nodded, "How'd you know this? I don't think I've told you…"

"Charlie told me." The doctor replied patting him on the shoulder, and then continued, "What I want you to do is just let Charlie join with you on the trip around Australia. She can just be taken to Darwin, where her father is currently staying at and then be dropped off. She's a nice girl so she shouldn't cause any problems. It shouldn't be too costly either, you people seem very trustworthy and I've already contacted her parents and they don't mind the idea, if you all are ok with it."

This shocked Max at such a sudden proposition, but by the looks of the professional, he seemed very fixed and serious about this. Max questioned and commented against this but the doctor made the plan sound simple and in easy reach. Soon Max found himself considering the idea and actually finding the offer hard to refuse… especially with that strange glimmer in the doctor's eyes, almost mesmerizing him into agreeing. Max felt himself spacing out and nodding in agreement to everything the doctor said.

---

"Grandpa… what did you do?" Ben and Gwen asked, waking their granddad up from his dazed state as he entered the room. The two have been distracted as Natalie completely took up their time and they barely managed to escape her motor mouthed mayhem by retreating back into their room.

"Oh, huh?" Max shook his head, trying to recall what just happened. "The doctor…. Relatives… Oh, Charlie's coming with us around Australia." He said, as if it wasn't a big thing.

"WHAT?!" Ben and Gwen both yelled out, at the same time, again.

"Well, just-"

"HOW CAN YOU AGREE TO SOMETHING LIKE THAT?!" Ben bawled.

Gwen agreed with Ben, and listed reasons along with him, "There's a chance she might find out about the Omnitrix! With all the aliens about she might get seriously hurt! What made you agree to something like that?!"

Max was also confused on why he did agree, but it's already gone and went and now Charlie's in their hands. "Now, listen. It'll just be until we get to Darwin to drop her off with her parents and that'll only take a few days. She's already been paid for, the relatives have dropped off any stuff she'd need, we have plenty of room in the RjB and if the worst comes and Ben needs to go hero, we can knock her out as a last resort and say she was just dreaming." He defended, "Besides, it'll keep Ben out of trouble and it'll be interesting. She can be helpful getting through the states and such. She's only a normal teenager so she can't do any harm."

"But grandpa! She's not normal! I swear she has some sort of second Omnitrix!" Ben rebutted.

Max got a little frustrated, it was getting late and he didn't want to argue more, "Ben. We have talked about this, the doctor's just a little… foreign."

Ben shook his head, "A little foreign?! Maybe foreign to this planet even!"

"You know you're starting to sound a little racist now…" Gwen added, getting Ben even more worked up and ready to explode. Why wouldn't anyone believe him?

Max saw Ben's aggravation, "Ok fine. We'll do something about that tomorrow. It's been a long day and tomorrow will probably be just as long too, so just relax and let things run its course."

Ben was still outraged, but knowing that Max's decision is usually the final decision he decided not to complain any longer, it has been an exhausting day. Gwen was still a little against this also, but Max was right, it will keep the Omnitrix at bay and it shouldn't really be any harm if all goes well.

"We better hurry and get to Darwin ASAP so we can start enjoying the holiday, grandpa." Ben moped, crossing his arms.

"Hey, it might be fun with another person your age coming with us-"

"Another GIRL you mean" Ben highlighted.

Gwen smacked Ben in the shoulder, "Now you're being sexist, it'll at least give me some good company." She said, actually seeing Charlie as a good person to have along.

"See? It all works out. But now it's time for bed you two. If you want to get to Darwin so quickly, we can leave in the morning. The doctor said Charlie should be ready by then."

The teenagers got ready for bed without further complaints, leaving Max to ponder on what he's just done. The last couple of minutes went too quickly… also those relatives. They came to see Charlie yet all they did was talk to himself, the doctor, the police and left? Maybe they're seeing her now. Thinking about it just made Max more bewildered so he just went to bed.

It should all work out without any dilemmas.

* * *

**End of Chapter 6.**

Next time on chapter 7! In the middle of the night Ben gets a midnight wake up call only to encounter yet another alien being and get himself in the middle of its rampage! Can Fourarms defeat this creature before the Omnitrix times out?

_A slab of cement just got thrown at him! It crumbled at his feet from the impact. What could possibly rip out a piece of the footpath?! He looked at the thugs; two of them were out cold on the road but the third one… wait, that's not human! _

"_You're the one who woke me up from before, eh?" Fourarms stated, "I thought you already chickened off somewhere!"_

_The creature hissed with a shriek, as it took a step forward, offended by his words._

…review and tune in!


	7. Early Morning Wake Up Call

**Interconnected Forms****  
**_**By Norcinu**_

_A/N: Sorry for yet another delay, internet problems that I couldn't fix, but I'm sure all of you had a good start to the new year. Some bad news with future chapters, will address at the end of the chapter. enjoy _

_Artwork: http:// i97. albums/ l223/ Norcinu/ My20Art/ IF-AzalyediaBanner6.jpg -- Copy past into URL, take out the spaces to make it work.

* * *

__**Chapter 7; Early Morning Wake Up Call**_

Ben woke to the crisp, quiet darkness of the room. He kept his eyes shut, trying to get back to sleep, yet something kept flashing into his face, keeping him awake. He groaned, slowly sitting up on his bed to check on the Omnitrix. It was flashing green, similar to a car indicator.

"…huh?" He tapped on it, thinking it might just be acting up but it kept flashing on and off, on and off, starting to give him a strange feeling in the guts. He slid out of bed and glanced at the time, just past 5am. He grumbled and rubbed his eyes, he felt so awake yet it was too early in the morning, "Man I knew I shouldn't have slept-in for that whole afternoon…" He muttered quietly, not intending to wake up the sleeping Gwen and Max.

CLANK!

A loud stumble was heard outside their room, as if a metal block dropped onto the hospital tiles in the hallway.

"Ben…?" Gwen stirred, half woken up from that noise. Ben walked up to the door to investigate and took hold of the doorknob.

He paused. A shiver going down his spine.

Not from the cold touch of the doorknob but from the strange noises he could hear from the other side of the door. It sounded like dinosaur grunts in those Jurassic park movies, but also sounding insect- like at the same time. So alien. It was too dark to see through the door window so Ben turned the handle and opened the door to investigate.

He tensed up in shock. "Oh my-" In front of him stood a small, completely strange creature barely a mater and a half tall. It could almost be describe as some bizarre looking mouse standing upright with extraordinary features, but simply words were too uncomplicated to describe it. Its alien appearance also made it daunting to look at, it's crossed pupil eyes and vertical slit mouth, nothing you'd want to cross paths with in the middle of a dark hallway in hospital at 5am in the morning, not like Ben was scared or anything.

It stood there awkwardly for a moment, as if studying Ben, but in a second it took an aggressive stance and leaped at him. Ben instantly slammed the door shut, locking the monster out. The creature scratched at the door and glared threateningly through the window at Ben. He kept a firm pull on the door to hold off the creature from coming in. But it then had no intention to, it turned and ran off, but after seeing something like that, Ben couldn't let it just run off wild.

"Ben, what's happening?!" Gwen asked, shaken and wide awake from the loud noises.

"Tell grandpa to bring the Null Void Generator, I'm goin' alien hunting!" Ben said, hitting the Omnitrix as he ran out the door, jumping onto his orange four paws as he landed in the middle of the hallway.

Wildmutt went to work and sniffed the air quietly, keeping all his keen sensors in check as he stalked slowly towards the direction the creature went. The hallway was long, dark and creepy, but of course Wildmutt couldn't be affected by those things. Light clanking and scratching noises echoed quietly, easily being heard out of the crisp silence and giving away the creature's position.

The door Wildmutt came out of, opened, "Err… Wildmutt?" It was Gwen.

Wildmutt made a canine sort of grin, showing he was excited about the creature appearing. He felt sound vibrations from down the hallway and turned, bolting off before Gwen could say anything else.

The echoing sound lead Wildmutt outside the hospital, but instead of seeing the creature, there was just the empty car park. A few cars but Wildmutt couldn't sense the alien's presence hiding behind any of them.

The area was just as quiet as it was inside the hospital, but darker as there were only the streetlights and moonlight to illuminate the place. He put his echolocation gills to full use and found out there was nothing in front of him so obviously the creature would try to attack from behind, from the balcony tops in front of the hospital. He stood still, waiting for the alien to make the first pitiful move on him.

Unfortunate for the brash Wildmutt, the move wasn't pitiful at all.

The alien jumped from off the rooftops just as Wildmutt expected but instead of landing on Wildmutt, it landing several meters beside him, and barely giving Wildmutt a second to react some unpredicted force suddenly hit Wildmutt sending him skidding back several meters on the hard cement. It felt like some heavy-arsed truck just slammed right into him, but it had more of a spinning force to it.

Whatever it was, Wildmutt was too overconfident and the attack hit him hard. It took a minute or so for the poor Vulpimancer to get back on his feet, only to find the creature's sprinted off somewhere.

"Wildmutt!" Gwen called out, running out of the hospital along with grandpa.  
"Where's the alien?" Max asked, attaching one of his specialized alien guns to his belt; something of which that took a lot of plumber skill to be stealthily brought into Australia.  
Wildmutt shook his self growled towards the path the creature left on, indicating to Gwen and Max that he still had a lock on the creature's scent.

-----

The three searched the empty streets but had little luck finding that creature. Soon 10 minutes was up and Wildmutt reverted back into Ben, making the search even more difficult and tricky. More endless minutes of seaching went by and the three decided to give up, well, until they heard a shop alarm go off.

"See, see?! I knew it!" Ben said, sprinting ahead of the other two, "The alien's definitely unfriendly and trying to cause trouble!"  
Gwen caught up with him, "We've been looking for if for ages Ben, it's probably just some night time thugs…" She puffed out, always having to say something to bring Ben's hopes down so he wouldn't expect so much.

They saw two thugs run out of an alleyway into their sights, Gwen skidding to a stop, "See?! Told you Ben!" She tended to keep out of fights over the years, just acting as a supporter or back up. Besides, Ben would make short work of the thugs anyway.

Ben went hero, coming to a stop as Fourarms as he saw the three figures running right to him. "Alright! Some action comin' my way!" He said in glee and spread his arms out, slamming his palms together to produce a clap that boomed out in front of him, sending the three shapes crashing backwards into the ground.

Fourarms dusted his hand and turned to face Gwen and poor old Max who was just arriving at the scene, "Quick and easy, down and out. Tie 'em up grandpa!"

But Max saw something flying towards them and flinched, "BEHIND YOU!" He yelled, jumping out of the way along with Gwen. Fourarms looked back and took a defensive stance just in time as something big and heavy got flinged at him. He was thrown off balance but shook it off. He took a look on what hit him…

A slab of cement just got thrown at him! It crumbled at his feet from the impact on him. What could possibly rip out a piece of the footpath?! He looked at the thugs; two of them were out cold on the road but the third one… wait, it's that creature!

"You again?" Fourarms grinned, "I thought you already chickened off somewhere!"  
The creature hissed with a shriek, a little offended by his words, yet it edged back a step from Fourarms.  
"Not much of a talker, are you?" He asked, cracking each of his four knuckles and scaring the creature further.  
The creature turned heel and started to run again.  
"Quit running and fight!" Fourarms yelled out, picking up a piece of that broken cement from that last blow and chucking it at the creature.

Luckily for the creature it fell to the ground, dodging the projectile, and by the looks of it more like it tripped accidentally but either way, it got up and started running again. Fourarms leaped high on his mighty leg muscles and landed right in front of the creature, blocking its exit towards the alleyway, "Where are you running off to again? I still need to return the favor of that slab of cement you threw at me!" As the creature turned around to run the other direction in fear of Fourarms, he grabbed its long tail and started to swing the creature around in the air, letting go and sending it straight into a brick wall nearby.

It hit the wall hard, denting the bricks and causing dust to fall loose. The creature fell to the ground unresponsively, perhaps knocked out. But as Fourarms walked towards it, it began to move, checking if it was still in one piece and finding not a scratch anywhere. It glanced at Fourarms, its fear turned into anger fueled by agony.

The creature tried leaping at Fourarms, only to get punched to the side easily. The small creature hit the road, but got up again easily.  
"So you've finally decided to fight…" Fourarms grinned, taking a fighting stance and grinning, "Bring it on short stuff!"

The creature took a quick analysis of the Tetramand. That incredibly-harder-than-human punch meant his muscles were a hell of a lot denser, and his bulk body shows that he was built solely for power and strength, not brains and speed.

The creature ran at Fourarms again, but as he tried to take a swing at it, the creature dodged out of the way and got behind Fourarms. He turned, trying to hit the creature again but it ran up the streetlight next to him, climbing to the top. The end of its tail was scythe-like and it quickly sawed off half the pole, making the top end drop onto Fourarms, who caught it in time. Fourarms saw what the creature was trying to do, "Ha! You think you can hide yourself in the dark then try to attack me? Foiled your plans!" He mocked, swinging the streetlight, along with the alien creature, away from the spot into another area lighted by other functional streetlights.

The pole crashed right into a car, making Fourarms cringe from his underestimate of his strength. Hopefully the owner's got insurance. The car alarm went off loudly as that pole and creature smashed into the roof of it. Fourarms didn't expect the alien to get up so quickly after another direct and hard hit.

But then it did something weird. In the broad light of the streetlight, it summoned some strange pinkish florescent force field that surrounded it like a sphere; it crushed everything within its small radius and decimated the majority of the car, stopping the alarm. It was quick but the strangest thing. Like some glowing purple liquid making a perfect globe, it almost looked like some magic special effects you'd see in cartoons, only in real life. The creature jumped onto the road, growling and its fists clenched in annoyance. Fourarms shook the sight off, definitely some sort of alien power he would investigate in some other time.

The creature made its move, its eyes gleaming as the purple force field washed over its figure again in a sphere, but as it did the trashed car began slowly lifting off the ground, along with other bits and pieces of gravel nearby levitating behind the creature. It brought its arms back and thrusted forward, sending all the debris rocketing at Fourarms, there was no time to evade so he braced himself, the torn car slamming into him as well as other bits and pieces.

The creature began charging at Fourarms, a little clumsy in its steps but Fourarms got his balance and punched at the approaching figure that tripped out of the way, rolling past the punch. Fourarms lifted his leg high and slammed down on the ground as the creature stood up, causing a crater within a few meter radiuses and tripping the creature over again. Fourarms attempted to punch it again as it was down but within a split second it got up again and with a swift movement with a little of its purple magic it took a cracked part of the crater along with some dirt and tossed it into Fourarm's eyes, blinding the hulk and giving the creature time to jump out of the way of him.

It jumped back and watched Fourarms too occupied with the nasty dirt in his eyes. The creature charged at Fourarms with careful steps and successfully delivered a punch in the Tetramand's stomach, followed with several more that sent Fourarms crashing to the ground a few meters away. It jumped back a few meters again to a safe distance to catch its breath.

He recovered quickly, getting up onto his feet and clutching his stomach. It's been years since Fourarms has ever found something that could challenge his strength for so long. He took a quick glance around, wondering for a moment what the hell Gwen and Max were doing. He could barely make out their shapes in the dark area of the street, probably tying up those two thugs from earlier. He locked eyes back with the creature seeing it was looking around in interest as well.

Fourarms took a deep breath, not admitting that he was getting just a little tired. The creature tucked its arms close to its shoulders and walked towards him again, but quite slowly. Fourarms quickly took these few seconds to focus his energy a bit more and concentrate harder on the fast little critter.

He charged at the small alien figure as it picked up speed as well. He clenched his two left fists in deliberation and thrusted it straight at the creature with as much force he could put into it…

…Only to have both his hands stopped in mid force.

"WHAT?!" He growled, trying to pull back his arms, only to feel such an intense grip on it, "YOU ANNOYING LITTLE AARRRGH!" He punched with his two other arms at the vulnerable spot the creature left open, but again those fists were caught as well in some small force field. That purple florescence appeared in front of him, showing that alien's using its powers again on him, whatever those powers were.

He tried to thrust forward with his strength but the force field budged only a little, he began attempting to thrash his arms around, trying to get it out of the force field, knowing that the creature was tiring fairly quickly as he noticed the field shaking quite a bit.

"Huh?" He gasped, feeling his weight suddenly diminish and seeing his feet being lifted off the ground. The alien was levitating him! It must be something like psychic powers! But the next thing he knew Fourarms got slammed straight into a nearby car, the alarm shrieking in his ears and the metal frame stabbing into his back. He yelled out in agony.

Now that… was unquestionably painful, Fourarms admitted.

The creature heard some fluttering, like the turning of pages of a book. The red hulk obviously looked like he'd take a while to get up so the creature took the moment to survey the area; there were definitely others in the area. Other than those two thugs it was following earlier.

It glanced back at Fourarms who was groaning as he slowly got himself out of the scrapped car. It took a lot of energy to fight him so the creature bolted off towards the sounds of fluttering, towards the darkened area where it first took out the streetlight.

Fourarms cracked his neck and looked around, seeing the creature's run off again, he sighed, "Geez, where are you going off to now…?" He then remembered that Gwen and Max were in that direction, and gasped.

* * *

**End of Chapter 7.**

_Chapter 8 hasn't been written yet so no preview. A small problem with the author, well, I'm getting a little… unmotivated to write, especially with the family problems I've been going through, it's too much of a hassle for me and my birthday coming up (16, so old...). So, I'm going to take a long break, perhaps freshen out for more ideas or stuck up some more juice to write with and come back refreshened. How long? Maybe two weeks, maybe the month, maybe stop updating weekly, or put this down all together. You guys could probably other things to do for the meantime than read random fanfics like mine XP Studies/holidays what not._

But I'm not leaving you readers at a terrible cliffhanger, I'll get the chaper 8 up sometime later next week, then I'll probably call it an official writers block from then on.


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